Inappropriate expenses: Boisvenu must repay $ 20,467

The amount of the invoice to reimburse taxpayers just fell for the 14 senators who had submitted their case to arbitration. Former judge of the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) Ian Binnie requires total reimbursement of 177 $ 898.14, which represents 55 percent of expenditure deemed inappropriate by the first Auditor General.

Quebec Senator Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu, well known for his fight for victims’ rights, will have to repay 20 to $ 467.33. In his case, the Auditor General Michael Ferguson had said they could not determine whether the expenditure of $ 61,076 was justifiable or not due to a lack of information.

The questionable spending another Quebec senator pointed to having had recourse to arbitration, the former policeman Jean-Guy Dagenais, was $ 3538. It will ultimately have to give the Senate $ 2,267.15.

The arbitration process following the report of Mr Ferguson, who in June 2015 had questioned spending 30 current senators and retired. Mr. Ferguson had identified questionable expenditures amounting to $ 1 million. Fourteen of them had challenged the findings and referred their cases to arbitration. Their expenses questioned ranged between $ 1,120 and $ 75,227, depending on the case.

The three Conservative senators who were at the heart of the expenses scandal, is Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin and Patrick Brazeau, as the Liberal Mac Harb, are excluded from arbitration.

In his report, Mr. Binnie noted that the problem of the senators referred “did not fall as the clarity of the rules and their casual attitude to the limits of what they are entitled.”

The tabling of Ian Binnie came a week after the media had reported that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) had notified 24 of the 30 senators singled out by Ferguson that no charges would be brought against them.